Former Bakersfield refinery to become renewable fuels plant
Update: In June 2020, Global Clean Energy Holdings let a contract to Haldor Topsoe to provide process technology for its Bakersfield, Calif., refinery (OGJ Online, June 9, 2020). Then, in April 2021, the company secured ExxonMobil as the exclusive buyer of renewable diesel from the biorefinery (OGJ Online, Apr. 22, 2021).
Global Clean Energy Holdings Inc. (GCEH) has acquired and plans the immediate conversion of Delek US Holdings Inc. subsidiary Alon Bakersfield Property Inc.’s idled 70,000-b/d Bakersfield, Calif., refinery into a renewable diesel production plant (OGJ Online, Jan. 9, 2018).
GCEH, which closed the deal on May 7 at a purchase price of $40 million, will immediately begin retooling the former crude oil refinery to produce renewable diesel from organic feedstocks such as vegetable oil, GCEH and Delek said in separate releases.
Scheduled to take 18-20 to complete, the revamp and conversion project will be executed primarily by local trade unions through Primoris Services Corp. subsidiary ARB Inc., which will act as engineering, procurement, and construction contractor, GCEH said.
With the former oil refinery already equipped with a large portion of necessary equipment in place for production of renewable diesel, the conversion project will involve about 100 union tradesmen to execute a full turnaround and refurbishment of existing equipment to enable production from renewable feedstocks.
Following its conversion into a renewable fuels refinery, GCEH said it will vertically integrate the plant to produce renewable diesel from multiple feedstocks, including GCEH’s patented proprietary fallow-land crop varieties of camelina, which—traditionally grown in rotation with wheat—is cultivated as an alternative to fallow so as not to displace or compete with food crops.
GCEH will source the balance of feedstock from various nonpetroleum renewable feedstocks, such as used cooking oil, soybean oil, and distillers’ corn oil, among others.
No petroleum processing of any kind will occur at the Bakersfield refinery, either during or following the retooling effort, according to the new owner.
Due for startup in late 2021, the refinery will produce low-carbon renewable fuels that comply with the California Low-Carbon Fuels Standard, as well as supply “a meaningful portion” of California’s demand for clean-burning alternative diesel fuels, GCEH said.
Alongside making renewable fuels production from the plant available for blending into California’s transportation fuel mix in the Los Angeles metropolitan and San Francisco Bay areas, GCEH said it also plans to sell, market, and distribute its production through various partnerships, including one with an unidentified multinational oil major.
The completed transaction for divestment of the Bakersfield refinery completes Delek’s sale of the last remaining US West Coast assets the operator acquired through its 2017 purchase of Alon USA Energy Inc. and Alon USA Partners LP (OGJ Online, Mar. 20, 2018; July 3, 2017).
Robert Brelsford | Downstream Editor
Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast, West Coast, Canadian, and Latin American markets. He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University.
